High-Res FLAC Archives - Page 3 of 30

Wagner Without Words

Price range: £12.00 through £21.00

Pianist Llyr Williams explores Wagner’s rich and evocative sound-world from a different perspective.
Featuring insightful arrangements of Richard Wagner’s operas by Franz Liszt and Glenn Gould (as well as Williams’ own arrangement of music from Parsifal), at the centre of the programme is a selection of Wagner’s own piano pieces – many of which were written earlier in his compositional career, hinting at the grand operatic masterworks which were yet to come.

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Mozart & Nielsen Clarinet Concertos

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

Julian Bliss performs the Clarinet Concertos of Mozart and Nielsen – often thought of as the two greatest such works in the repertoire: twin examples of what can be achieved by composers who have been truly inspired to write for the clarinet, using its uniquely expressive qualities to produce enduring and comprehensively masterly compositions. Alongside these Julian Bliss presents two of his own clarinet arrangements of two Mozart arias, Der Liebe himmlisches Gefu?hl, K. 119 and Non che non sei capace, K. 419. The brilliant Julian Bliss continues to demonstrate his considerable talent ... A youthful addition to the many excellent versions of the Mozart already available, and a fine introduction to the Nielsen for those who are not familiar with it - Classic FM Highly recommended - Northern Echo Bliss integrates the bottom register smoothly, in a performance matching that of the Nielsen in flair, intimacy and spontaneity - BBC Music Magazine

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Benedetto Marcello: Psalms

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

VOCES8 and Les Inventions shine a light on a hidden musical treasure in these world-premiere recordings of Charles Avison’s 1757 adaptation of Benedetto Marcello’s Estro-poetico armonico. A fresh and original collection, Marcello’s Psalm settings were composed in Venice and quickly found fame across Europe after their publication between 1724 and 1726. ★★★★★ The results are wholly delightful and absorbing, and the intimate forces of VOCES8 and Les Inventions are completely at home in this repertoire - Choir & Organ ★★★★ With their vivid word-setting and lively declamation, the English texts give a slightly homespun quality to the enterprise. Well sung, there's a striking triple canon with Latin text to finish - The Observer ★★★★ Marcello's masterpiece receives...world premiere recording here by VOCES8, accompanied by the organ, recorder and strings of French early-music ensemble Les Inventions - The Independent Very polished - BBC Radio 3 CD Review A nice variety of vocal colours and a lovely blend make for a convincing representation of Marcello's largely unknown masterpiece Estro poetico-armonico. More please - Early Music Review

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Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, 1740

Price range: £12.00 through £21.00

The Gabrieli’s first Handel recording in over a decade is particularly special, recreating in painstaking detail the very first performance of L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, given in 1740, with additional instrumental repertoire including a Handel organ concerto and two concerti grossi. With a reputation as peerless Handelians, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & players bring meticulous research to every performance and recording project, and are joined on this disc by a stunning selection of soloists.
★★★★★ This is quite simply life-enhancing music making, a glorious achievement in every respect - Early Music Today ★★★★★ McCreesh finds all the expressive opportunities in a blissful production, at times breathtakingly beautiful - Choir & Organ ★★★★★ The choral elements are scrupulously handled by the Gabrieli Consort - BBC Music Magazine McCreesh's superb Gabrieli Consort and Players present all this...with flair, a pristine sense of style and infectious energy - The Times Handel's ravishing score [is] realised to perfection by Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli... A glorious recording - The Observer

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Postcards

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

The King’s Singers explore the folk songs and melodies of the world in a new programme entitled Postcards. In their own words: “In our travels we have amassed a wonderful collection of folksongs and popular songs from numerous countries, many of which we use as encores when we visit. The influences and sources are extraordinarily far-ranging, and each song has its own local characteristics. To celebrate the diversity of music that we perform and the numerous countries we visit each concert season, we have recorded an album of some of our favourite folksongs from around the world.” Typically immaculate performances of songs collected by the King's Singers on their global travels, and used as encores. Velvet vocal blending is a given, and mellifluous arrangements - BBC Music Magazine

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Will Todd: Lux et Veritas

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

Lux et Veritas (Light and Truth) is the new album from Will Todd with the professional chamber choir Tenebrae. Todd’s music has a universal appeal and he has been hailed as “one of the UK’s most sought-after, versatile composers” (Tempo Magazine). For this collection of sumptuous new choral works Tenebrae are accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the choir’s director Nigel Short. This new release follows Will Todd’s last choral album The Call of Wisdom, featuring music commissioned for HRH The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee service in St Paul’s Cathedral in 2012. Throughout, the excellent Tenebrae under Nigel Short's sensitive direction deliver the sequence of 14 short pieces with commitment and great beauty of tone - Choir & Organ One of this year's finest releases - Classic FM Don't miss this movingly accessible and genuinely sensitive choral collection - MusicWeb International Sumptuous, soothing and reflective music for all occasions - Northern Echo

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CPE Bach: Symphonies

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

Avant garde. Eccentric. A maniac. Wild and adventurous. Off the wall. Extraordinary. No marketing hyperbole - this is how the players of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment describe Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach and his music. One of the many children of JS Bach, CPE Bach always lived in his father’s shadow, and now is an almost unknown figure at least beyond the classical cogniscenti. How can such an unknown be considered a gamechanger? A listen to his music reveals just why – it constantly shifts, wrongfooting the listener when they least expect it with wild changes of direction and colour – it is bright, effervescent, and is a fascinating link between the music of his father (and the Baroque era) and Joseph Haydn (and the Classical era). ★★★★ It is the sense of adventure that comes across vivaciously here in a fusion of stylistic taste, smooth and supple phrasing and an exuberant thrust - The Daily Telegraph Editor's Choice: Self-critical perspective is clearly not a problem for these artists ... the unfurling description of of a lover's kisses permit all kinds of glorious opportunities for the singers' seemingly telepathic understanding for chiaroscuro, impeccable tuning and innate grammatical sense - Gramophone The OAE under Rebecca Miller play with an accuracy and passion that's infectious: this is among the most exciting, adrenalin-filled period instrument recordings you'll hear - The Arts Desk Symphonies that embrace the strangeness and originality of the writing as well as the beauty of some of the middle movements and the feistiness of the finales. Made live, but they’ve emerged in excellent shape - BBC Radio 3 Record Review The orchestra's playing here is bright, effervescent and fascinating – truly positioning C.P.E. Bach as the missing link between his father and the music of Haydn - Classic FM These energetic, committed performances of five symphonies dating from between 1757 - when Haydn was first writing in the genre - and 1780 show the period band has lost none of its verve and enthusiasm for this strange, dramatic music from the dawn of the "classical" era - The Sunday Times

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SHOSTAKOVICH: 24 PRELUDES AND FUGUES

Price range: £8.00 through £18.00

Celebrated international pianist Peter Donohoe begins a new series of Shostakovich releases on Signum Classics with a new recording of Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. All 24 of the preludes and fugues were composed within several months, after Shostakovich was inspired by the performance of Tatiana Nicolayeva, whom he heard as a jurist for the Leipzig Bach Competition in 1951. Although doubtlessly inspired by J.S. Bach’s own 48 Preludes and Fugues in his use of form and counterpoint, Shostakovich’s compositions are all deeply original and rooted in his own enigmatic and ambiguous style, moving from charming simplicity to dazzling virtuosity. ★★★★ Donohoe treats these piano miniatures with the utmost sincerity...there is immense dignity and power in Donohoe's directness - The Guardian This is top class, this is a global level, this is not to be missed! - Stretto Magazine

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Alessio Bax plays Beethoven

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

Alessio Bax returns to disc on Signum with two masterworks of Beethoven’s piano repertoire, as well as a new arrangement from Die Ruinen von Athen. Pianist Alessio Bax creates “a ravishing listening experience” (Gramophone) with his lyrical playing, insightful interpretations, and dazzling facility. First Prize winner at the Leeds and Hamamatsu international piano competitions – and a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient – he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras. Editor's Choice: Finely recorded, Alessio Bax is clearly among the most remarkable young pianists now before the public - Gramophone Highly recommended - Classical Ear

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The Captive Nightingale

Price range: £8.00 through £12.00

German romantic rarities for soprano, clarinet and piano Australian soprano Elena Xanthoudakis joins forces with Jason Xanthoudakis and Clemens Leske to perform some lost gems of the Romantic chamber music and leider repertoire – featuring works by composers including Lachner, Späth, Proch, Lindtpaintner and Kalliwoda.

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Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen – described by the late Ruggiero Ricci following a masterclass as the “most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered” – adds to her already prodigious reputation with a new disc of timeless works for strings by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Edward Elgar. Joined again the the Orchestra of the Swan under David Curtis, the centre piece of the programme is an enchanting performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. Her sense of line and capacity to make things happen are both beautiful and strikingly individual ... The Lark Ascending's opening solo searches out an extreme degree of musical space in a way that's at once daring and mesmerising - BBC Music Magazine Superlative performances of Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending ... Highly recommended - Northern Echo This double homage to strings and English composers is engrossingly good - Sinfini Music

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Mitridate: Re di Ponto

Price range: £24.00 through £42.00

The Mozartists continue their series of Mozart Operas on Signum with Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87 (74a). As well as the complete opera, this 4CD digipak release includes a bonus disc featuring the original versions of a number of arias from the opera that Mozart subsequently changed in the final version.
This splendid achievement, a genuine rival to Christophe Rousset's star-studded 1999 Decca version, is given added documentary value by the inclusion of a fourth CD containing the original versions of eight arias the teenage Mozart changed at the behest of his cast - Opera Magazine Nobody has done more to open our ears to the seeds of genius in the young Mozart than Ian Page, by the simple expedient of taking his early music seriously - Opera Now This performance is as committed and engaging if you could wish for; the hours – almost four if you include those extras – fly by. It’s almost budget price as well with essay texts and translations - BBC Radio 3 Record Review Ian Page nurtures a performance that crackles, beguiles, thrills and moves by turns exactly as Mozart's opera requires - Gramophone This excellent recording is probably the one that Mozart completists will want to have - Daily Telegraph

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No Exceptions No Exemptions

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

A song recital which commemorates World War One brings to mind works by the poets and composers who fought valiantly for their country. But the affliction of the War was not restricted to the battlefields. As well as those who fought, there were those interned, those who stayed to defend their home, and those who were forced from their homes by the advancing armies. This recital draws its inspiration from those lives upturned by the Great War, whether friend or foe, soldier or civilian. Some survived the conflict to produce great catalogues of works. Others never made it home, penning their final songs in the mud of the trenches. Alongside established works, this recital programme introduces some little known songs to portray the humanity of those caught up in the torrent of The Great War. 2CD Set, Price of a Single CD

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Rameau: Anacreon (1754)

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

Rameau wrote two operas called Anacréon, both one-act actes-de-ballet but with completely different music and plots. The opera presented here is the first of the two, a setting of a libretto by Rameau's most frequent collaborator, Louis de Cahusac, Following its first performance at the beautiful chateau of Fontainebleau in 1754, Anacréon enjoyed some success in Paris after Rameau's death before becoming all but lost for over 200 years. From fragmented manuscripts scattered through Paris's libraries, Jonathan Williams reconstructed the work, had his edition published by Ba?renreiter, and now leads this world-premiere recording with a leading cast of soloists and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

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Sounds of Spain and the Americas

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

World-renowned violinist Sebastian See-Schierenberg is joined by Flamenco guitarist Ramon Ruiz and pianist Sophia Lisovskaya in this compilation of works drawn from and inspired by the music of Spain and Latin America. The programme includes works by Isaac Albeniz, Manuel de Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge, Enrique Granados, Franciso Tarrega & Astor Piazzolla.

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The Cole Porter Songbook

Price range: £8.00 through £14.00

British soprano Sarah Fox makes her solo recording debut with songs by Broadway songwriting legend Cole Porter. Accompanied by pianist and arranger James Burton, highlights include ‘In the Still of the Night’ from Rosalie; ‘I’ve got you Under My Skin’ from Born to Dance, and ‘I get a Kick out of You’ from Anything Goes. ★★★★ Sarah Fox and James Burton [give] lovely relaxed performances - Planet Hugill [Sarah Fox] lends a classic feel to all the favourite, including I've Got You Under My Skin, I Get a Kick Out Of You and Anything Goes - The Lady A wholly delightful disc - MusicWeb International

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